Stephen Wynn

Stephen A. Wynn is the most successful casino developer in the world who is credited with spearheading the dramatic resurgence and expansion of the Las Vegas Strip by building the Golden Nugget, The Mirage, Treasure Island, Bellagio, Wynn and Encore resort hotels. Born Stephen Alan Weinberg in New Haven, Connecticut, Steve Wynn was raised in Utica, New York and studied cultural anthropology and English literature at the University of Pennsylvania. Wynn’s father ran a string of bingo parlors on the Maryland eastern shore. In 1963, when Wynn was 21 and just short of receiving his college degree, his father died during open-heart surgery, leaving $350,000 of gaming debts. Wynn took over running his family’s bingo operation. He did well enough to accumulate the money to buy a small stake in the Frontier Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. He parlayed his profits from a land deal in 1971 into a controlling interest in the landmark casino, The Golden Nugget Las Vegas. Wynn renovated and expanded the Golden Nugget from a gambling hall to a resort hotel and casino with enormous success. His first major Strip casino, The Mirage -- a $575 million 87-acre tropical wonderland financed largely with junk bonds issued by financier Michael Milken -- opened in 1989. That same year, Steve Wynn spoke to the Academy student delegates at the 1989 Achievement Summit in San Francisco about his life and business career. Wynn went on to open the Bellagio resort, Wynn Las Vegas, and the Encore as well as the Wynn Macau and the Encore Macau in China.